The 2018 midterm elections brought significant gains for Democrats, who retook the House of Representatives and snatched several governorships from the grip of Republicans.

But some were left questioning why Democrats suffered a series of setbacks that prevented the party from picking up even more seats and, perhaps most consequentially, left the US Senate in Republican hands.

Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber.

..

“The rise of minority rule in America is now unmistakable,” said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University.

“Especially with a sitting president who won a majority in the electoral college [in 2016] while receiving roughly 3m fewer votes than his opponent, and a supreme court five of whose nine justices were nominated by Republican presidents who collectively received fewer popular votes than their Democratic opponents and were confirmed by Senates similarly skewed.”

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But the latter was the result of partisan gerrymandering, which saw Republican-controlled state legislatures redraw congressional districts to favor the party in what conservative architects dubbed as Redmap, short for the Redistricting Majority Project.

It was for this very reason that Tuesday night’s governor’s contests were deemed by Democrats as equally, if not more, important. With the next redrawing of district lines set to take place in 2020, it was regarded as vital for Democrats to win back seats in state legislatures across the country.

Democrats made gains in some must-win states, including Michigan, but fell short in other battlegrounds, such as Florida and Ohio. David Daley, author of a 2016 book about how Republicans built a firewall against Democrats through redistricting, said he was not sure Democrats had done enough on Tuesday “to ensure that they have a reasonable voice in the process”.

Elsewhere, progressives lamented the results in the Senate, where some commentators were quick to note that Democrats led the overall tally by double-digit percentage points. The most recent figures had Republicans holding 51 seats and Democrats with just 46, with a handful of races still too close to call.

Florida is still being contested. Also, the current Governor Rick Scott (the Republican running for Senator) has called for a probe into south Florida election officials, claiming they are mishandling ballots and that the Dems are trying to steal the election from him.

And Gillum's and DeSantis race has narrowed below the 0.5% required for an automatic recount.

The lead amounts to less than half a percentage point with over 1.8 million votes counted. McSally was up by 17,703 votes earlier in the day, before the counties processed another 160,000 votes — but about a half-million more votes remain to be counted across Arizona, according to both campaigns.

Most of the outstanding ballots are coming from Arizona's largest county, Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and includes Sinema's congressional district. Sinema held a slight edge of about 1 percentage point over McSally in the county as of Thursday afternoon, but the new votes counted Thursday expanded the Democrat’s Maricopa edge to 2.5 points. That’s the outcome Democrats had hoped for, while Republicans were expecting McSally’s tally there to improve.

The state will continue to count early votes cast before the election daily until the race is resolved.

Arizona as well Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema took a narrow 9,610-vote lead over GOP Rep. Martha McSally Thursday evening as Arizona’s election authorities counted more ballots in the state’s uncalled Senate race. The lead amounts to less than half a percentage point with over 1.8 million votes counted. McSally was up by 17,703 votes earlier in the day, before the counties processed another 160,000 votes — but about a half-million more votes remain to be counted across Arizona, according to both campaigns. Most of the outstanding ballots are coming from Arizona's largest county, Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and includes Sinema's congressional district. Sinema held a slight edge of about 1 percentage point over McSally in the county as of Thursday afternoon, but the new votes counted Thursday expanded the Democrat’s Maricopa edge to 2.5 points. That’s the outcome Democrats had hoped for, while Republicans were expecting McSally’s tally there to improve. The state will continue to count early votes cast before the election daily until the race is resolved.

Georgia governor is still up for grabs, too. Abrams said she is not conceding the election, and may call for a revote because it's still too close to call.

Seeing how things are not going their way... Arizona sues to stop counting ballots in democratic counties. How blatantly asshole cheats can they be! Oh wait this is the GOP, that’s what they are.

They are also trying to interfere in Florida's voters count. Rick Scott has asked law enforcement to look into it because he is saying it's voter fraud. Trump even tweeted about it, calling it voter fraud. He's upset that they had not finished the count as quickly as all other counties, without taking into consideration that they are both larger counties in Florida.

Seeing how things are not going their way... Arizona sues to stop counting ballots in democratic counties. How blatantly asshole cheats can they be! Oh wait this is the GOP, that’s what they are.

They are also trying to interfere in Florida's voters count. Rick Scott has asked law enforcement to look into it because he is saying it's voter fraud. Trump even tweeted about it, calling it voter fraud. He's upset that they had not finished the count as quickly as all other counties, without taking into consideration that they are both larger counties in Florida.

I was going to say Gerrymandering but I see that answer was stated in the OP. Thankfully some state supreme courts are reversing that trend. Maybe not enough though.

With respect to the question stated in the title, gerrymandering had nothing to do with the GOP gaining seats in the Senate. You can't gerrymander an election in which the entire state can vote.

This is the confusing thing to me. House districts are, for the most part, gerrymandered to favor the GOP. Yet the GOP lost 30 seats.

I guess there could be a couple explanations:

1. In the House races where Democrats won big, there wasn't a Senate race to vote in2. If there was a House and a Senate race, lots of people voted in the House election but not the Senate election

Much more study is needed. Texas is a good place to start.

Democrats picked up House seats that were heretofore considered unwinnable (see: Pete Sessions loss) and yet still lost the Senate race. This is probably because lots of Democrats voted in some districts, but more old white people voted in the rest of the districts.

I was going to say Gerrymandering but I see that answer was stated in the OP. Thankfully some state supreme courts are reversing that trend. Maybe not enough though.

With respect to the question stated in the title, gerrymandering had nothing to do with the GOP gaining seats in the Senate. You can't gerrymander an election in which the entire state can vote.

This is the confusing thing to me. House districts are, for the most part, gerrymandered to favor the GOP. Yet the GOP lost 30 seats.

I guess there could be a couple explanations:

1. In the House races where Democrats won big, there wasn't a Senate race to vote in2. If there was a House and a Senate race, lots of people voted in the House election but not the Senate election

Much more study is needed. Texas is a good place to start.

Democrats picked up House seats that were heretofore considered unwinnable (see: Pete Sessions loss) and yet still lost the Senate race. This is probably because lots of Democrats voted in some districts, but more old white people voted in the rest of the districts.